Quacking Alone

Hey guys, the big guy here.

Think back to almost a year ago when I told you that the tablet computer (the iPad, et al) was nothing really new. It was simply a culmination of several computing and communication technologies that had finally become affordable and reliable enough to put into one marketable device.

Well, today Mary Anne found proof of this via Twitter, in the form of a fascinating video made by the Knight Ridder News company back in 1994. In it they describe what they believed the future of newspapers would look like: a tablet device called an “electronic newspaper”. The device they depict has many uncanny resemblances to, you guessed it, an iPad.

This is an amazing feat of prognostication, considering that the first recognizable Windows web browser (Mosaic) had been invented only a year prior to the video’s release, and there was really no such thing as Internet video or animation at that time.

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Just a quick update b/c I didn’t blog this weekend. I was busy working on Duke of Eden – so I know my fans will forgive me.

I almost finished Duke this weekend – I’ve made it to the closing scene. So I hope to get ‘er done this week and hit the press with Part 3 by the weekend – at the latest. The full book will follow after a “full” edit.

So all you DUKE OF EDEN fans keep your eyes on this blog. You’ll find out here first when Part 3 goes to press.

**Note: This blog is a slightly revised version of one I posted earlier at the Marianne’s Blog. The original post is here. I’ve updated it because Mrs. Santa didn’t come through at Christmas. I hope you’ll go to the Marianne’s Blog and check out all of the fine posts by the talented authors I blog with there. (Clears throat) And yes, this is a bit of shameless self and cross promotion.

But I especially want you to check out the Marianne’s blog on Monday, 4/18. That’ll be my day to blog and I’m doing something special. Because I’m almost finished with Part 3 of The Duke of Eden, and it and then the full book will be available soon, I’m doing a little preview on Monday. ON 4/18 DUKE OF EDEN FANS WILL BE ABLE TO EXCLUSIVELY READ AN EXCERPT FROM PART 3. So don’t miss it. Check out my post at the Marianne’s Blog on Monday, 4/18 to get a glimpse of what’s ahead for Brand and Adria**

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I know that rainbows exist and people say there are pots of gold at the end. Some people also claim that they do outlines that plot a complete book before they ever type the first word. I’m willing to believe that both things are true. Of the two truths, I’m more likely to find the pot of gold than I am to outline a book. My creative process just doesn’t work that way.

 I suspect that the outline method works for organized souls. I imagine those writers entering a state of harmony with the universe as they fill their roman-numeral-bearing outlines from “Chapter One” to “The End.” I suspect that on lots of those writers’ desks you’ll find the Zen Desk Gardens with all the sand and the little rake. Can’t you just see one of them building up a little sand mountain as they wrestle with a plot dilemma in the “Chapter Seven” section? Perhaps other of the Zen-organized authors have desktop water fountains or rock gardens. They plot their books as they live their lives – calm, organized and focused. 

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Hey kiddies, it’s the husband again.

Mary Anne is working on wrapping up Duke of Eden for all of you who are lusting for some closure on that serial, so blogging duties have fallen on me once again.

Let me pull out and dust off something I wrote back on December 10, 2003. It was not quite the height of the Hate Bush II movement, since it was still his first term, but the Left and their allies in the news media outlets were getting fired up with anti-war rhetoric and hypocritical hatred of Dubya.

Now with the Libya operations, there has been a strange turnaround with the rhetoric. You too can be prepared to predict these turnarounds (among many other trends) if you simply memorize the guide to television news I wrote over 7 years ago:

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